If I were to sock away 20% for expenses, that gives me a small NOI, and the equity would be sitting in the house which really doesn't get me anywhere.The Refi would bump up my mortgage and I'd need to hold on to about 5K for an emergency fund, but if I put about 10K into remodeling, I can potentially break-even by charging more in rent.

Adding a $150/mo. tucked away for emergency expenses and looking on the other side when the rents double its a pretty good deal.

CalvinBelow is a top 10 list of emerging markets.

•Located near to emerging Software SEZ and education hub (15 collages will be operation in coming 5-6 yrs).

You make a valid point and I did think about getting an additional bid but 1) we have a good long history with this guy and he's always been very fair, 2) the hole in the kitchen floor constituted an emergency in my book and 3) with the tornadoes, finding new contractors is a real problem right now.

Now I'm done buying and the very first thing I did when that happened was to start to set liquid cash aside for maintenance and emergency funds.

Prices are still low here and it's one of the top 10 emerging markets in the US.

Identify and pioneer the next emerging market/product.

The third one, when winter comes around, I will have to use the emergency heat setting to get the heater to work AT ALL which costs an arm and a leg (I pay utilities on those three units).

The lessons you are teaching them will allow them to 'live like a kid' much longer than the schmucks who shlep off to a 9-5 job for a paycheck 5 days a week.This is one of the reasons why I wish I lived closer to my family, so I could teach these lessons to the younger generation emerging.